Wood shortage
I’m in NJ and we have a problem restocking our wook shed right now. We generally order 50 bundles a month of 1 x 2 12″ stakes and 36″ lath, all quality hard wood. We are running 5 crews and do a mix of boundary layout and stakeout work that eates through a few hundred stakes and lath weekly.
We tried to place an order with a reliable supplier that I have been using for over 15 years and his wood warehouse is empty. He’s hoping to be able to deliver us 100 bundles of each in two weeks but can’t get it from the producer now because they don’t have it either.
Is anybody else having this problem? Can anybody recommend a supplier in the NJ area that can deliver an order of hard wood ASAP?
Buying pine is an absolute last option as it splits too easily.
- 22 Replies
Buying pine is an absolute last option as it splits too easily.
Here in CA most stakes are fir or pine. I’ve never seen hardwood stakes used. I guess it’s a matter of what’s most inexpensively available in a given area.
Edit: I have seen hardwood used in the form of round pointed dowels, about 3/4″ in diameter. I don’t know why those are available here when hardwood flat stakes aren’t.
In the Pacific Northwest; Pine, Fir and Hemlock are most widely used, and are readily available.
Good luck, finding your hard wood…
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
No problems here, I’d suggest getting plastic if you can’t find wood lath, more expensive but easier to use and we’ve been getting them shipped in days. All you need to do is drape orange or whatever color duct tape over them.
I’d hook you with my supplier, but he is Amish. Not sure he’d deliver in NJ. I just drove by his place he has probably a 1000 in stock.
@dougie elm & oad are what works best here.
@leegreen how do you contact him? Is he in NY or PA?
He is in Poland NY. I’ just stop at his house to speak with him. He doesn’t have a phone. But the Amish relay calls through the local hardware store in Poland. Make a list of what you need and I will stop tomorrow.
Good luck, finding your hard wood…
By the bundle if you’re in their delivery area in south New Jersey, by the pallet elsewhere. (Just had the first two pallets delivered to the lay-down area on a construction site in Virginia – now I need to order about 50,000 60d nails)
Wood Survey Stakes: Lath, Hub, Wedge & Tree | Survey Supply, Inc. (surveysupplyinc.com)
@leegreen we should be good for now, we managed to find 50 bundles of each.
@james-fleming thanks
We usually use hard wood (ie. poplar) for our long lath and soft wood for our short lath. We used to get our poplar from Quebec, but that deal dried up with the increase in fuel prices. We now source them from a local guy who repurposes construction cut-offs for soft wood lath. There is usually “some guy” on a backroad who is willing to make stakes if you put the word out.
What a place, we have here, eh?
@jaccen the stakes and lath we use are all hard wood, they have to in most of the areas of the state that we work. I managed to snag 50 bundles of 12″ stakes today but there are no lath to be found anywhere in the area that aren’t rough cut pine. The rough cut pine lath eat markers and shatter in hard ground.
All they really use around here is trash pine so about every 4th or 5th lath explodes.
Hoping this hard wood shortage in NJ doesn’t spread to the rest of the country.
I totally can understand people wanting hard wood lath. I knew an OLS who was pounding in a 4′ pine lath and the ground was tough. He was holding the lath with his left hand and mini-sledging it in with his right. The lath shattered and a piece pierced through the fleshy part of his hand between his left thumb and index finder. The piece was large enough that they had to bandage it and take him to the ER with the wood sticking through him. He always wore thick leather gloves after that, no matter the season.
We use short lath where ever possible to limit similar experiences. We feel the premium for hard wood large lath is worth it. Our supplier is currently exploring a “burn on” label (ie. company, phone number, etc.). Some of the Amish suppliers in our area have that so he is “upping his game” to compete. These are the prices we have for lath in our area (Canuck bucks, commonly known as Monopoly Money to everybody else outside our borders):
Stake Prices Jan. 1, 2022 Soft Wood Maple 18x2x1 .72 .88 24x2x1 .91 1.12 24x2x2 1.31 1.69 36x2x1 1.29 1.60 36x2x2 1.97 2.54 48x2x1 2.17 2.58 48x2x2 2.83 3.58 Over 48x2x2 --- .73 per linear foot Painted 18x2x1 1.32 1.63 Painted 24x2x1 1.81 2.02 Painted 36x2x1 2.44 2.75 Painted 48x2x1 3.16 3.58
All they really use around here is trash pine so about every 4th or 5th lath explodes.
My full time hammer swinging days needed around 1998, but I still have a knot on my right shin from hitting it with a 4lb hammer when stakes suffered catastrophic failures.
All they really use around here is trash pine so about every 4th or 5th lath explodes.
My full time hammer swinging days needed around 1998, but I still have a knot on my right shin from hitting it with a 4lb hammer when stakes suffered catastrophic failures.
I??m resigned to my best hammer swinging days are behind me. Hard wood was so much easier to find back in the day.
Willy
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